Sunday, April 27, 2014

Miami Rum Renaissance 2014

Yesterday I went to the Grand Tasting of this year's Miami Rum Renaissance at the DoubleTree Miami Airport Convention Center. Ed Roberts and I did the rounds and tasted rums and cocktails from dozens of distilleries. We bumped into Rum Royalty, Rob Burr, who was busy but always ready to stop for a moment to talk rum.

We chatted with the vendors about their products and posed for some pictures with a few cute models. (You can see some of my favorite moments below!) Pamela Obando, who you met on an episode of ByTheGlassShow, was there representing Papa's Pilar rum, and she made one of the two best cocktails of the day. The jalapeno kick to it was amazing! The other awesome cocktail, well, you're going to need to watch the video below to find out! Check out his moves!

As for the best rums tasted neat... I loved Zafra, Centenario 25, Diplomatico 12, Dos Maderas 5+5, and Don Pancho to name a couple off the top of my head. Sadly, most of the vendors did not have enough product to carry them through to the end of the event. It wasn't so much missing the opportunity to drink more rum. I had already had my share. But just the experience being cut short was a little disappointing.

But I went home, cooked some killer burgers, and somehow an impromptu party kicked up at my house. And that never happens! I'll definitely be going back next year.